Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-05-23
Aorifultnra1 department.
The other side of the Help
Question.

! "A farm hand of Hartford coun-
tv, CT. speaks rather harshly OF
farmers and their treatment of help.
He saws. "a farm hand has to work
for not very high wages" Let Us
see. Wages are from SIS to so
per month with board and lodging,
washing and mending, or about the
same as SIS to SO in the city, which
brings the farm hands pay just
about on par with unskilled labor
there True, there are chances in
the CITY of Boston where unskilled
labor of the right kind may get bet
ter pay. For instance, if ''Farm
Hand" is temperate, honest and has
the physical strength to stand the
work as well as the moral courage
to quietly receive the spiteful abuse
of many of his female customers and
not to take offense at the lordly over
bearing tone of the bar-tending fra
ternity, he can get a job as driver
of an ice wagon at S14 per week and
two meals a day found. His work
will be from $50 o'clock a. m, I'M
til his last customer is supplied at
night, which may be anywhere from
> TO I'D o'clock p. M, according to
the weather. Other jobs with less
hard work and shorter days might
be mentioned, but the pay would be
correspondingly less.
The successful farmers work is
from early morning until the chores
are done at night, let it be 10 or y
hours He who confines his farm
work to factory hours will make a
failure of farming as a business.
The kind of help needed on the farm
is the man of intelligence who does
what he is told as he is told and as
soon as he is told without complaint
or wasting time in advancing his
own opinions man who has suffi-
cient knowledge of his business to
do a piece of work as it should be.
and when it is accomplished set him
self about another job if the owner
is away at the time; a man who has
some knowledge of good manners,
washes his hands and face, combs
his hair and cleans his finger nails
a man who reads and profits by what
he reads man who can speak po-
litely to lady when spoken to, and
yet not presume TO intrude himself
upon her notice when not wanted. In
fact, we want the man who has the
ordinary intelligence of mankind, is
sensible enough to cultivate his good
qualities, control his temper and de-
termine to be something better than
an ordinary farm hand. To such
men there are thousands of homes
open where they will not only re-
ceive good pay but be treated as a
member of the family; be honored,
respected by the family and make
them lifelong friends.
If the hired man is intelligent and
has good practical ideas on farming,
his employer will not be long in find
ing it out, nor will he feel above talk
ING them over with him when at leisure.
How many such men as i have tried
to describe has "a Farm Hand
ever seen? Has he ever seen such
an one poorly fed, poorly lodged or
roughly treated? If SO it was the
hired mans fault for staying while
hundreds of men, who would appre-
ciate his good qualities, are anxious
to hire and open their homes to just
such men. but find it impossible to
find them.
The simple facts of the case are
that majority of the men who hire
out as farm help are unfit for any
position of trust, either for want of
intelligence, dishonesty, laziness or
drunkenness. They get employment
on farms simply because farm help
is scarce. They take no interest in
their work or the prosperity of their
employer, but are very apt to think
they know all about farming. They
are not such men as parents desire
their children to be intimate with,
or to pattern THEN lives after. In
consequence of their own appearance
and behavior, they are neither hon
ored nor respected, but simply toll
Grated as a necessary nuisance
PhdP.